Foo Fighters - Everlong

What this video is

Released in August 1997 as the second single from The Colour and the Shape, 'Everlong' arrived at a moment when post-grunge alternative rock had fully colonized mainstream radio and MTV. The video's Evil Dead-homage surrealism reflects the mid-1990s indie film literacy of alternative rock audiences, while Gondry's practical-effects dreamscapes anticipate the prestige MV auteurism that would define the late 1990s…

Why it matters

A canonical artifact of post-grunge's artistic peak, 'Everlong' and its video represent the high-water mark of the MTV alternative era in which major-label budgets were channeled through avant-garde visual directors. Gondry's approach—surrealist narrative over performance footage—helped legitimize…

The director

French director and screenwriter born May 8, 1963, in Versailles, France. Began career directing music videos for his own band Oui Oui before Björk commissioned him for 'Human Behaviour' (1993), launching an internationally acclaimed MV career spanning Daft…